Geneva, 16 September 2004:Ecma International (Ecma) has approved ECMA-269,
6th edition, Services for Computer Supported Telecommunications
Applications (CSTA), as an official standard, together with
a series of related publications. This suite is a complete
toolbox for developing a wide range of enterprise CSTA applications
taking advantage of Internet technologies such as XML, SIP
and speech recognition and processing.

CSTA is a (Ecma, ETSI and ISOI/IEC) Standard with an exhaustive
feature set and a comprehensive call model. CSTA supports
a range of application landscapes – from basic 1st
party call control to advanced 3rd party call control with
the same standardised model. CSTA exposes advanced communication
platform features to application developers without burdening
them with underlying protocol specifics.

SIP enhancements bring multi-media capability
and mobility for enterprise and carrier applications. TR/87
and ECMA-269 standardise new profiles tailored to SIP implementations,
and specify a SIP transport mechanism for CSTA XML messages,
new MIME types for CSTA, and illustrate CSTA/SIP deployment
options. These enhancements complement existing SIP features
to provide advanced call control and device control features
for CSTA applications.

New Voice Services in CSTA are based on
Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) and provide speech
services such as recognition, synthesis and speaker verification,
extending existing mark-up languages such as HTML, XHTML,
and XML.
Further enhancements to ECMA-269 include profiles for SIP
user agents, an Internet URI device format, Device ID character
support for International Numbers, Media Class types to
support IM, SMS and MMS, and a new User Model for increased
User mobility. ECMA-269 also takes advantage of the Ecma
Application Session services (ECMA-354) that defines session
management primitives specified in XML schemata.

The new editions of ECMA-348 (CSTA Web Services Description
Language) and ECMA-323 (XML Protocol for CSTA) are now fully
aligned with the new edition of ECMA-269. Ecma Technical
Report ECMA-TR/88 “Designing an Object Model for CSTA”
is a new member in the CSTA suite, which facilitates robust
and prompt application integration.

“Ecma has a vital role to play in bringing new technologies
and techniques to the marketplace within a reasonable timeframe,”
noted Jan van den Beld, Ecma Secretary
General, “Rapidly developed international standards
for CSTA increase vendor-independence and interoperability
for converged communications-intensive enterprises”.

“CSTA continues to be enhanced to support new features,
for example in SIP, providing a way to go from ISDN to VoIP
in several steps, in each of which applications could run
in a differently mixed environment. This avoids a breakpoint
from ISDN to VoIP. “ noted Christian von Reventlow,
Tenovis CTO, “Tenovis has successfully implemented
the transport mechanism for CSTA messages, introduced in
ECMA-TR/87 for controlling SIP User Agents, for other signalling
protocols (ISDN and VoIP). Therefore Tenovis actively supports
the standardization process of this technique, which is
in accordance with existing and future Tenovis products.”

“We are very excited to see SALT-based voice services
being included into the new edition of ECMA-269.”
says Xuedong (XD) Huang, General Manager
of the Microsoft Speech Platform Group. “We have included
SALT and ECMA-323 in Microsoft Speech Server, officially
available since April 2004. Through our joint development
and early adopter programs over the past two years, though,
we have found the SALT specification with ECMA-323 to be
industrial strength and meet the most demanding needs for
computer telephony integration and call center automation.
The inclusion of SALT with the rest of CSTA is a logical
next step to bring voice services en mass to the telecom
industry.”

"Siemens, an active contributor to CSTA standardization
activities for many years, is very pleased that Ecma has
approved these new CSTA enhancements. These most recent
enhancements enable applications to take advantage of the
latest technologies in communications - including advanced
speech services, mobility, and SIP devices." noted
Tom Miller, Principal Architect, Siemens
Enterprise Networks, "TR/87 is important because it
shows how CSTA and SIP standards can be used together to
provide a robust, standards-based application interface
for feature-rich SIP phones that can be deployed in Enterprise,
Hosted, and Carrier environments. This in an important step
in the evolution of the CSTA standards and it creates some
exciting opportunities for products that implement them."

As an Ecma approved standard, ECMA-269 6th edition will
now undergo “fast-tracking” in the International
Standards Organizations (ISO) and International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC) Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1). Ecma
continues to enhance the CSTA standards. Further information
on CSTA activities at Ecma is at:http://www.ecma-international.org/activities/Communications/TG11/cstaIII.htm.

Since its inception in 1961, Ecma International (Ecma) has
developed standards for information and communication technology
(ICT) and consumer electronics (CE). Ecma is a not-for-profit
industry association of technology developers, vendors and
users. Industry and other experts work together in Ecma
to complete standards. Ecma submits the approved work for
approval as ISO, ISO/IEC and ETSI standards.

Ecma is the inventor and main practitioner of “fast
tracking” of specifications through the standardization
process in Global Standards Bodies like the ISO. In ISO/IEC
JTC 1, Ecma has the status of an A-liaison, equivalent to
a national body without voting rights. Since the start of
fast-tracking in 1987, over 200 (more than 80%) of the total
number of proposals for fast-track processing have come
from Ecma International, and have been approved.